The Urth of the New Sun: The sequel to 'The Book of the New Sun' Audiobook

The long awaited audiobook sequel to Gene Wolfe's four-volume classic, The Book of the New Sun. Listeners return to the world of Severian, now the Autarch of Urth, as he leaves the planet on one of the huge spaceships of the alien Hierodules to travel across time and space to face his greatest test, to become the legendary New Sun or die. The strange, rich, original spaceship scenes give way to travels in time, wherein Severian revisits times and places which fill in parts of the background of the four-volume work, that will thrill and intrigue particularly listeners who enjoyed the earlier books. But The Urth of the New Sun is an independent structure all of a piece, an integral masterpiece to shelve beside the classics, one itself.

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"The conclusion of "The Citadel of the Autarch" left a bittersweet taste for me: on one hand, I wanted to actually know what happened next to Severian, but on the other, I quite enjoyed the open-ended conclusion Wolfe left us, which seemed to mesh well with the whole series where one is frequently left wondering what's going on "beyond the pages". When I found out there actually was a fifth book, I knew I had to read it, even if it meant potentially spoiling an otherwise amazing story. Having read it through now, after re-reading the first four books, I am pleased to say it did not disappoint. Now for a more practical review. I don't wish to spoil the story and so will strive to be as brief and vague as possible while actually giving some useful data for any potential reader. I'd say the first 1/3 (or maybe 2/5) of the book takes place in a spaceship. I was a bit shocked to find this out, since I believed the entire book would be about Severian's voyage through the stars and his eventual meeting of the "new sun". This is not exactly false, but after the first dozen pages I was under the impression all would happen away from Urth. While this section of the book is interesting enough, I must admit it felt a bit off. Maybe it was just my nostalgia wishing for more of the weird imagery invoked by the planet Wolfe created. Maybe I'm just not too found of closed spaces (even if the ship is as big as - or perhaps bigger than - a planet). It also didn't help that the reader, though the same as the previous books, sounded slightly different and pronounced a couple names differently than I had grown accustomed to (Vodalus, the river Gyoll, to name two). Once Severian was back, however, my enjoyment steadily grew. Specially once a couple things started clicking more with events mentioned on the previous books. Let me say I'm a simple person and even if some had already made such connections before, I hadn't and was quite thrilled to do so now. It is a bit of a delicate matter that may or may not easily spoil the story to some, so I'll just say a couple major events were re-visited under a new light and time-paradoxes are a thing now more than ever. Oh, and some things may feel a bit too "magical", but honestly I didn't feel that detracted from the story. All in all, I definitely recommend this book for a fan of the series. While not essential, it's a nice addition to the original 4."

— Lucki (5 out of 5 stars)